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Montezemolo denies Vettel rumours

Reports suggested that Fernando Alonso had sanctioned Sebastian Vettel's arrival © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Luca di Montezemolo
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• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Ferrari
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• Red Bull

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and Red Bull have denied reports that Sebastian Vettel will join Ferrari at the end of 2013.

Felipe Massa is expected to sign a one-year deal to remain with Ferrari next season, with a BBC report stating that he is a stop-gap before Vettel joins the following season. While rumours that Vettel has a pre-contract agreement with Ferrari have been ongoing for a number of months, the fact that Ferrari allowed Sergio Perez to join McLaren only added to the speculation.

Vettel is under contract until the end of 2014, however, and although Helmut Marko has previously revealed there are performance-related clauses that would allow him to leave, a Red Bull spokesperson told ESPNF1: "Sebastian will for sure be with the team in 2014."

And Montezemolo says he wants a clear number one and number two driver line-up.

"I've always said that I don't want two roosters in the hen-house," Montezemolo told Italy's Rai radio. "I don't like that and it creates instability in the team.

"[I would] rather two drivers who race for Ferrari and not for themselves. I don't want problems and rivalries, which we didn't have between [Michael] Schumacher and [Eddie] Irvine, between Schumacher and [Rubens] Barrichello, between Alonso and Massa or Massa and Schumi or Massa and [Kimi] Raikkonen."

Montezemolo did admit, however, that it was likely Massa would be remaining with the team - a situation he described as "unthinkable" mid-way through the season.

"Undoubtedly, at half-season it was unthinkable to reconfirm Massa; now he's meeting our expectations, tomorrow we'll discuss it and then we'll take the decision. Massa performed very well in Monza and in Japan; it is a Massa reborn. I asked him to come to Maranello tomorrow and we'll discuss it at length, I think that he's always given a lot to Ferrari and that he built a good team spirit with Alonso. I put my stakes on him to gnaw points away from our adversaries".

Montezemolo added that he and Massa have always had "a perfect relationship, I must have talked to him 40 times this year.

"It's true that the features of the car we had at the beginning of the season were such that he couldn't drive it but I always sustained that we needed him to react and from Spa on he started to improve his performance; he knew he could count on the whole team's full support."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.